Waterloo Photos

Critic reviews for Waterloo

ATTENTION: SOME OF THE QUOTES BELOW CONTAIN SPOILERS

Matthew Weiner -- who directed and co-wrote last night's mid-season finale with Carly Wray -- gave us plenty to chew on in an immensely satisfying and oddly optimistic stopping point with the men in a panic and the women in calm control.

Just because Don is trying to be a better man, and taken "one small step," doesn't mean the rest of his world has caught up with him. Repercussions of his past continue to dog him. Will he continue to try, or slip and slide backward?

A death, a song and dance number and a sale; must be a season-ending episode of Mad Men... Love how Don's marriage ended in a hushed sigh as they both just gave up; meanwhile Peggy and Sally become even closer copies of Don. How can we wait until 2015?

Bert's been around, he's had a good life and he got a great sendoff. Megan, to be honest, we knew back at Howard Johnson's that was never going to work. But losing Julio, well, that's going to take some adjusting.

The achievement of "Waterloo" is in some ways more impressive, because the show has given us this exact episode two times previously and yet managed to do one that was more exciting and emotionally satisfying than the ones before.

These are all notes that the show has played before, but what makes them work so wonderfully in "Waterloo" is that the show can now play around with a sense of finality it didn't really have in the past.